Lockdown List garden ticks

We may be free to jump in our cars and head for our patches, but the garden can still spring surprises.

Last night was a case in point. The overnight temperature has been chilly all week, and I have not been tempted to put the moth trap out. But Friday night is GMS night (Garden Moth Scheme), so I was obliged to. The forecast suggested cloud so I was mildly optimistic.

Having put it on, I couldn't resist periodically stick my head out of the back door to take a look. The sky was cloudless, and my optimism waned. A Light Brown Apple Moth was the only moth I could see. As Graham Norton appeared on the TV we decided it was time to turn in. One last look through the window. A moth shot past, then it or another seemed to pitch down onto the trap. Out I went, peering at a dark shape. Something. Then I was brought up short by a faint call, a sort of strangled purr. Surely not? I thought I knew what it was and I stood on the doorstep for ages (about 30 seconds!) hoping it would call again. It did, this time closer; a Barn Owl. I was sure of it, but not so certain that I didn't head straight for the computer and play the call. It was exactly right. This was not only a lockdown garden tick, but also a full all time garden tick. That list, recently revived thanks to lockdown, now stands at 81.

This morning I was up early to see what moths I'd caught. The LBAM was in the trap, but nothing else. That's strange. Also nothing on the walls or the fence. Finally I spotted it, resting on the wires leading to the trap, a rather worn Swallow Prominent. Not new for the year but at least it was something.

Swallow Prominent

But that was not all. A singing Goldcrest reminded me that my lockdown garden list needed updating.

May 15

60. Barn Owl

May 16

61. Goldcrest

As for the muddle of lockdown lists, I think its time to bring Boris Johnson type clarity to the whole situation.

No bird seen at Morton Bagot will count towards my lockdown list, but I will still add to it if I see one from the garden, or walking from the garden. So the Barn Owl counts as both a garden lockdown tick and as a lockdown tick:

Lockdown list

May 15

72. Barn Owl

But the Goldcrest only counts on the garden lockdown list because I have already recorded one during lockdown, on foot from the house.

The moth lockdown list remains abandoned.

Crystal clear I hope. I may produce a graph to emphasise the points made.

Wednesday May 13 - back on the patch

My first visit since late March took place on a rather cold, mostly cloudy morning. The light northerly breeze suppressed insect activity, so it was down to the birds to step up to the plate.

They didn't.

The whole visit felt a bit strange to be honest. The stables where I park were strangely deserted, and I later discovered that they had gone out of business. This information was gleaned from the land-owner, Paul, who went on to say he would be building a house on the plot shortly. I may need to find somewhere else to park.

With such a hiatus since my last visit, it was inevitable that I would see (mostly just hear) a number of birds that would be new for my year here. Reed Warblers (two singing), Sedge Warblers (three calling), Whitethroats (seven singing), Lesser Whitethroat (one singing), Willow Warbler (one singing), and three Swifts duly made it onto the list.

Strangely, I didn't see any hirundines, making this the first year I have seen Swift here before Swallow or House Martin. Too cold perhaps.

My big hope was that the flash field would save the day. Sadly the scene simply reinforced my impression that spring had come and gone in my absence. The pair of Shelducks was still present, and a pair of Teal was the nearest I came to seeing anything unusual. At least three pairs of Greylag Geese have goslings, while a single Canada Goose was on a nest at the dragonfly pools. Only two pairs of Lapwings were present. The Little Owl disappeared into the foliage of its nesting tree as soon as I appeared.

The local mammals were doing their best. Brown Hares were everywhere, and I saw three Roe Deers including a strangely lethargic buck which allowed me to photograph it before wandering casually off.

Roe Deer

The temperature barely made it into double figures, but I still managed to find my first damselflies of the season. The Beautiful Demoiselles along the Morton Brook can be relied upon to show well.

Beautiful Demoiselle - female

Beautiful Demoiselle - male

As for butterflies, I saw just two Small Heaths.

Small Heath

I'm sure better days lie ahead.

Countdown to patch return

Since the government clarified its lockdown rules in March, I have denied myself the opportunity to visit Morton Bagot. I took the view that although the Heart of England Forest (who own most of the land) have made it clear it remains open to visitors, I could only visit on foot or by bike. I do not own a bike, and walking there and back could take over two hours on top of the time spent there.

It's been very frustrating. April is arguably the best month at Morton Bagot, and well photographed Grasshopper Warblers at nearby Morgrove Coppice hinted at the likelihood that I have been missing some cracking birds.

But now Boris has relaxed the guidelines, and from tomorrow I am free to make the ten minute drive to my patch. I will be amazed if he doesn't have to apply the brakes in a couple of weeks, but until then I feel empowered to visit.

In the meantime, here is a tiny moth which lives on ferns outside our front door.

Psychoides filicivora

The spring feels damaged beyond repair, but you never know.

Garden moth bonanza

The temperature held up well last night, dropping to just 11 degrees, which boded well for moths.

They did not disappoint. The grand total was 27 moths of 20 species.

I had three which were new for the garden (and also lifers); Grass Rivulet, Spotted Shoot Moth (two), and Notocelia cynosbatella.

Grass Rivulet

Spotted Shoot Moth

Notocelia cynosbatella

The full list was as follows:

Red-green Carpet 1 (nfy)
Sallow Kitten 1 (nfy)
Lime Hawk-moth 1 (nfy)
Orange Footman 1 (nfy)
Coronet 1 (nfy)
Grass Rivulet 1 (nfg)
Oak-tree Pug 3
Yellow-barred Brindle 1
Brindled Pug 1
Ruddy Streak 4
Bright-line Brown-eye 1 (nfy)
Lunar Marbled Brown 1
Heart and Dart 1 (nfy)
Treble Lines 1 (nfy)
Light Brown Apple Moth 1
Notocelia cynosbatella 1 (nfg)
Spotted Shoot Moth 2 (nfg)
Common Marbled Carpet 2 (nfy)
Waved Umber 1 (nfy)
Flame Shoulder 1

So out of that lot, the best finds other than the garden ticks, were the Red-green Carpet (I think my previous records have all been in autumn), the Sallow Kitten (first since 2018), Lime Hawk-moth (just a cracking moth, third record for garden), Bright-line Brown-eye (first since 2018), Orange Footman (first since 2018), Treble Lines (second record for garden), and Waved Umber (third record for garden).

Red-green Carpet

Sallow Kitten

Lime Hawk-moth

Bright-line Brown-eye

Orange Footman

Treble Lines

Waved Umber

The last moth shown, a Waved Umber, was glimpsed last night when I dashed out with a torch to confirm that the grunting noises coming from the garden were made by a Hedgehog. I disturbed the moth without being 100% certain it was a Waved Umber. This morning it wasn't in the trap and I gave up on it, only to find it in the utility room. It must have shot past me and gone into the house.

For completeness sake, the remaining ones which were new for the year, but which will probably be the first of many, are shown below.

Common Marbled Carpet

Coronet

Heart and Dart

I'm abandoning the moth lockdown list, as its pretty much the same as my year-list.

Lockdown wandering - Skilts Common

The sunshine is back and with the moths largely not spectacular, I went for a walk up to Skilts Common this morning.

I'll deal with birds first. Several new birds brightened the day. The first was rather overdue; a Treecreeper was in trees surrounding Skilts Fishing Pool. I reached the top of the slope where I was stopped in my tracks by a distant Cuckoo calling. A minute later a much closer call, but I didn't see it. My guess is that this was a calling flyover. I was elated.

Skilts Common itself produced plenty of Whitethroats and a Willow Warbler. I also kicked up a small moth which turned out to be a Common Carpet. A pair of Swifts flew over, and then three Herring Gulls circled overhead.

Common Carpet

I decided to walk to the trig point, from where I had excellent views over Redditch.

Retracing my steps, but walking into the sun, I twice flushed a bird from the hedge. I wasn't completely sure what it was, it seemed quite large for a passerine and may have had a white rump. It did indeed, for my third view clarified the situation. It was a Wheatear, a bird I had almost given up hope of seeing this spring.

Wheatear

It seems quite likely that this male was a Greenland race bird, but after allowing me three shots into the heat shimmer, it disappeared before I had a chance to see to see it front on.

I turned my attention to the small pool below the summit. As before it contained at least one pair of Little Grebes, plus Coot and Mallard with young. I snuck down to the edge to see if I could see any dragonflies. Rather surprisingly I couldn't, but a whoosh of wings turned out to be a pair of Tufted Ducks arriving. The male quickly swam behind a tree, but the female remained visible.

Tufted Duck

The walk back home gave me the opportunity to photograph a roadside Small Tortoiseshell.

Small Tortoiseshell

So the bird lockdown list has advanced by four:

68. Treecreeper
69. Cuckoo
70. Wheatear
71. Tufted Duck

Turning back to the garden where I spent most of the previous few days, I caught three moths on the night of May 6/7; a Common Pug, a Shuttle-shaped Dart, and a Chocolate-tip (nfy).

Chocolate-tip

This is one of the more attractive moths. If you ever feel like encouraging others to get into moths, show them a Chocolate-tip. Do not show them this;

Common Pug

So the lockdown moth list also advances;

May 6

35. Chocolate-tip

May 8

36. Common Carpet

I also had a near miss, when a brownish butterfly flew from our Viburnum, where I had failed to notice it. I'm fairly sure it was a Comma, but hopefully I'll get a second chance.

Lockdown update - May 4

Yesterday morning I went for my exercise walk up to Skilts Common and back. I may previously have alluded to the possibility that this place could produce the next lockdown mega-rarity. This was a mistake. Being mildly superstitious I knew even as I typed the sentiment that the mere act of prediction would mean that I'll never see anything rare at Skilts Common.

Sure enough, the walk was so dull that I didn't even find anything worth pointing the camera at. The best bird, a singing Garden Warbler, remained out of sight until my patience broke and I moved on. Next best was a couple of singing Willow Warblers, or maybe a swirl of hirundines containing about 20 House Martins and 10 Swallows.

So with nothing added to the lockdown list I decided to spend the morning playing with my camera in the back garden. As a regular reader of the excellent NQS blog I noticed he had made some suggestions for manual settings. I was particularly interested in his proposal for shots of flying birds. After a morning of frustration I am not totally convinced, but he did say it would take practise.

A fly-over Black-headed Gull went past slowly, but I still only managed some horrible blurred images. Eventually a Sparrowhawk was a bit more obliging, but the best image still isn't up to much.

Sparrowhawk

I may have managed better on auto.

However, away from flight shots, a female Blackbird was so helpful it was as though I had ordered it to appear and pose just so.

Blackbird

Just passing the time.

The evening was chilly with a keen easterly breeze, so I wasn't too surprised to catch just one moth. At least it was new for the year; a Flame Shoulder.

Flame Shoulder

The bedroom provided me with another year-tick, the ubiquitous White-shouldered House Moth. They all count.

White-shouldered House Moth

The lockdown moth list moves on:

34. Flame Shoulder

33. White-shouldered House Moth

A garden alldayer

My original plan today had been to simply conclude the first quarter of the Garden Moth Survey, but news that the West Midlands Alldayer was to be continued in modified form had me pondering on what to do.

First things first, I was up at 05.00 am to check the moth trap. This didn't take long as it contained just two moths, a very worn Chestnut and a pristine newly emerged Common Pug which was new for the year.

Common Pug

So what should I do next? The invitation to take part made it clear that birders should abide by the Government's guidelines. Birders seem to have interpreted these in a variety of ways: walking for one hour from home, staying at home, walking for a few hours from home, cycling to their patch and birding there, and possibly driving to their patch and birding for longer than the drive.

In other words its all a bit ambiguous. I decided to challenge myself to a garden only list. Thus taking the strictest possible interpretation of lockdown, but realising it would probably be pretty dull.

Fifteen hours later my list has reached 30 species, and dusk is falling.  At least I managed one full fat garden tick (as they say), and one other lockdown list addition.

The latter was a Bullfinch which I heard as it apparently flew over the house behind me during my morning vigil. Three House Martins heading north was the only sign of passage.

The former came late in the afternoon after I had pretty much given up. Two hirundines were flying north and as I got on them I realised they were Martins, but I couldn't see any white on their rumps. I may be over 60, but I can still cover 10 yards in no time at all. Thus, having run the length of our side passage I was in time to confirm what I thought and even see a brown breast band which confirmed they were Sand Martins before they disappeared.

A single Swallow and a Swift concluded my day.

So that's birds garden lockdown and lockdown lists as follows:

May 2

58. Bullfinch           66. Bullfinch
59. Sand Martin      67. Sand Martin

and for moths:

May 1

32. Common Pug